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Tuesday, March 7, 2017

#WeirdEd Week 140- Calvinball

We've had a few weeks of good but less-that-weird #WeirdEds. This week I want to make up for it by going for it full-on. And there's nothing more full-on strange that a good game of Calvinball. So grab your Calvinball masks and get ready, because it's time to brush up on the rules of Calvinball.

Rule #1- The only permanent rule of Calvinball is that you can't play it the same way twice.

Got it? Good.

Teaching is wonderfully strange and wild and stressful. There's so many pressures on us so sometimes we need to run to the tree and sing the "I Don't Wanna Grade" song.

I don't waaannna grade

No I don't

I don't waaaannaa grade

But I can't won't

Because I goooootttaaa grade

Yes I gotta gotta grade

(Gotta gotta grade)

Yes oh yes oh no oh yes

I gotta grade

(Don't wanna)

I gotta grade

(Don't wanna)

I don't wanna I don't wanna

Graaaaaaade

Of course the "I Don't Wanna Grade" song can boomerang back to you if you're in the Assessment Vortex and you end up grading the same assignment two or three times looking for growth.

Then take the ball and bounce bounce bounce to Differentiation Station, where every single player has to do something they aren't good at in front of every other play, and every other player gets to suggest how each other can improve the thing they are doing.

Then you must spin clockwise three times on one foot. This represents Emailing The Tech Dept. Spin thirteen more times and punch yourself in the forehead if you are the Tech Dept.

Integrate movement into your Calvinball game by finding Kinesthetic Country. Did you find it? Ohhhh, it's in Backwards Land, time to sit down for fifteen minutes and count grass blades.

Your score is now Progressing to B+. If you counted an even number of grass blades round your score up from Progressing to New Mystery Grade No One Explained To The Staff Yet. If you found an odd number of grass blades quick find one more there now you have an even number, well done.

Your principal is coming, so quick run back to your desk and continue grading, humming the "I Don't Wanna Grade" song under your breath. Or over your breath. You know what, hum it right in line with your breath, no one expects that.

Now, as for what we're going to chat about tonight- oh look at the time. I call Ending, I win.